Көреген қайраткер: Әлемді ядролық апаттан сақтап қалған Василий Архипов.

the Soviet general twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Soviet naval officer credited with averting a nuclear incident (1926–1998)

Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov (, 30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Naval officer who is known for preventing a Soviet nuclear torpedo launch during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The course of events that would have followed such a launch cannot be known, but various speculations have been advanced, up to and including global thermonuclear war. As flotilla chief of staff as well as executive officer of the diesel powered submarine Soviet submarine B 59, Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain and the political officer to use nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision that required the agreement of all three officers. In 2002, Thomas S. Blanton, then director of the U. S. National Security Archive, credited Arkhipov as "the man who saved the world".

Arkhipov was born into a Russian peasant family in the town of Staraya Kupavna, near Moscow. He was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, serving aboard a minesweeper. He transferred to the Azerbaijan Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947.

After graduation in 1947, Arkhipov served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern, and Baltic Fleets.

Immediately upon return to Russia, many crew members were faced with disgrace from their superiors. One admiral told them "It would have been better if you'd gone down with your ship". Olga, Arkhipov's wife, said that "he didn't like talking about it, he felt they hadn't appreciated what they had gone through". Each captain was required to present a report of events during the mission to Marshal Andrei Grechko, who substituted for the ill Soviet defense minister. Soviet military officials were infuriated with the crew's failure to follow their strict orders of secrecy, but this anger was mitigated when the Collegium learned that diesel electric submarines had been involved—not, as originally planned, nuclear submarines. The diesel electric submarines were not so well suited for long range voyages in Caribbean waters as the nuclear ones. Researcher Alexander Mozgovoi has written that when Grechko learned about this discrepancy, he "removed his glasses and hit them against the table in fury, breaking them into small pieces and abruptly leaving the room after that". In 2002, retired Commander Vadim Pavlovich Orlov, a participant in the events, held an interview revealing that the submarines were armed with nuclear torpedoes and that Arkhipov was the reason those weapons had not been fired. Orlov presented the events less dramatically, saying that Captain Savitsky lost his temper, but eventually calmed down. Robert McNamara, U. S. Secretary of Defense at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, stated in 2002 that "We came very, very close [to nuclear war], closer than we knew at the time." Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., an advisor for the John F. Kennedy administration and a historian, continued this thought by stating "This was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. It was the most dangerous moment in human history."

Arkhipov continued in Soviet Navy service, commanding submarines and later submarine squadrons. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975, and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. Arkhipov was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in 1988. He settled in Kupavna (which was incorporated into Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, in 2004), where he died on 19 August 1998. his wife described him as intelligent, polite, and very calm. Much of what is known about his personality comes from her. According to her, he enjoyed searching for newspapers during their vacations and tried to stay up to date with the modern world as much as possible. In this same interview, Olga alluded to her husband's possible superstitious beliefs as well. She recalls walking in on Vasily burning a bundle of their love letters inside their house and that he claimed that keeping the letters would mean "bad luck".

Leon Ockenden portrayed Arkhipov in Season 12 Episode 1 of Secrets of the Dead, entitled "The Man Who Saved the World". It was aired 23 October 2012 on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The 2021 novel Red Traitor by Owen Matthews includes Arkhipov as a major viewpoint character, and is dedicated to him. The character of Captain Mikhail Polenin, portrayed by Liam Neeson, in the 2002 film K 19: The Widowmaker was closely based on Arkhipov's tenure on Soviet submarine K 19. The musical group Converge dedicated a composition called "Arkhipov Calm" to Arkhipov in 2017. Denzel Washington's character in Crimson Tide (1995) is an officer who refused to affirm the launch orders of a submarine captain.

In recognition of his actions onboard B 59, Arkhipov received the first "Future of Life Award", which was presented posthumously to his family in 2017. Offered by the Future of Life Institute, this award recognizes exceptional measures, often performed despite personal risk and without obvious reward, to safeguard the collective future of humanity. In 2002, Thomas S. Blanton, the director of the U. S. National Security Archive, said that Arkhipov "saved the world".